Matthew 3:13-17 “Son of God”

I have to admit that the idea of “The Son of God” is really difficult to understand. The idea of a son, that is a male child, is easy enough. The understanding of a supreme being, that is God, can be fathomed. Yet, put the two terms together: “The male child of the supreme being of the universe” and your head begins to spin. What does that actually mean? How should we understand this? Believe me when I say, I am not sure if I understand it completely, yet as a Christian I use these words to describe Jesus. This sermon is all about Jesus for sure!

I want to start in John 1:12: “To all who received Him, who believed in Him, He gave power to become children of God.” John repeats this thought in Revelation 21:7 with the promise that God will take all of us as His children one day. Yes, that means that you are today “a child of God.” That is a very comforting thought that makes us all therefore brothers and sisters in Christ. That is how I always start my newsletter articles!

Jesus is not just “a” child of God like the rest of us however. As we read from our text for today, Jesus is called out by a voice coming down from heaven as “The Son of Mine, Beloved, With whom I am well pleased.” He is not just “a” son of God. He is “THE” Son of God. That determiner is super significant. If you are looking at your pew bibles and wondering how come you do not have a determiner “the” in your translation, please just know that it is there in the Greek and that it is much more accurate to translate this as “The Son of Mine,” meaning singular and that there is only one of Him in the universe.

What does it mean to be “The Son” of somebody back in Jesus’ day? We all know that the family structure just is not what it used to be. How was it back then when Matthew was jotting this down?

We actually have a parable of Jesus that explains this really, really well. We can pick it up in Matthew 21:33-46: “The Parable of the Wicked Tenants.” It actually appears in all three synoptic gospels. A landowner leases his vineyard to tenant farmers. When the harvest time comes, the landowner sends his servants to collect his share (the rent, if you want to think about it that way). The tenants “beat one, killed another, and stoned another.” The landowner then decided to send his son because “They will respect his son.” They kill the son, too, thinking now they will inherit the farm for themselves.

Interestingly enough, that might have been the case that they would inherit the farm, except for the fact that the landowner is still alive and is going to take out the tenant farmers before anything transpires. Yet, in this parable is the understanding that the Son goes out with the authority and power of the father. He is not just a servant. He is the same as the father in terms of power over the tenants. That is to say then that Jesus is the same as the Father in heaven over us. Cool, right!

Throughout the Bible we can read about these other servants of God that are not “the Son.” These servants include all of the prophets of old who spoke for God. Remember John the Baptist falls into that category. He is himself a prophet–a servant of God. We also see angels in the Bible who serve God. They are also servants as the very term “angel” means to be sent by God. Lastly we see servants who are called “priests”; these are like the table servants in the master’s house. They perform the sacraments for worship of the Almighty.

Jesus is none of these! In the Muslim Faith, Jesus is simply called a “Prophet of Islam.” They do not accept that he has the same power and authority as God. They will think that he merely speaks on behalf of God as a prophet would. In the early church there was a movement that thought Jesus was only an angel: This was called Arianism after its leader Arias. Angels are of course considered to be lesser servants of God. And, if Jesus had been only an angel then he could not have died on the Cross, which means there would not have been a resurrection. That is crazy. We know Jesus died on the Cross, and our whole faith is that we shall share in the Resurrection of Jesus. And, of course Jesus is not merely a priest serving at God’s table. That is just a ridiculous idea to start.

Jesus has the same authority and power as God; yet, he came to us in human form that we could know God.

The question then is “What is this power and authority”? The answer to that is simply stated in the next words: “My Beloved.” Yes, Huey Lewis and the News (That is the rock group from the 1980s) had it right: “That’s the power of love!” You probably remember that tune from the movie Back to the Future. Or, maybe you recall that line that is on everybody’s t-shirt “John 3:16, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” This is the power and authority that is shared between Jesus and God. When God sent Jesus to us “wicked tenants” it was with the power of love from God.

I want you all to consider the three years that Jesus ministered with his disciples. Why did he feed the five thousand? He did not have to. That was a miracle of love. Why did Jesus save the adulterous woman? Another miracle of love! Why did Jesus wash his disciples' feet after communion? He loved them! And, on that night he commanded the Great Commandment to LOVE as he had done. Love God, and love your neighbor. \

Sometimes we get a little confused about what divine love is supposed to look like: Sometimes it is tough love. Why did Jesus turn the tables at the Temple? Because he loved God and others and wanted them to worship the Almighty in all righteousness. It is not because Jesus hated. In fact the Bible does not say that Jesus hated anyone ever although he does rebuke those who are greedy and self-righteous. He hated evil–as we who love God all should!

The last thing I want to look at is this line that comes at the very end: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” This is one word in the Greek εδοκησα. This could also be translated as “approved and certified.” At the heart of this word is the concept of grace. That is technically what the word means “good graced.” Eugene Petersen in his translation of this text wrote for this one word “delight of my life.”

This last week, I just happen to know, that one of our young students here in church got 100% on a spelling test. He got all twenty-five words correct. Of course, the mother and father were delighted. Of course, they approved. I want us to think about this term then as “Jesus passes every test, every certification, every approval, and God in heaven is delighted.”

Do any of you remember back to a time when not every item had an expiration date? An exhaustive list of ingredients? Allergy warnings with an indemnification of liability clause? How did we ever know what we were buying? Ah, we had the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Back then, that was all we needed because we trusted that Seal of Approval. God is not going to list all the ingredients that went into Jesus, but you get God’s “seal of approval”!

I want to close by looking at just one more mysterious line, verse 15. Why baptize Jesus? Because, as Jesus states, it is “proper and right” to do so. Can you remember a time when we did what was proper and right simply because it was proper and right? We used to rely as much as on the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval on that simple idea of being proper and right. God has firmly established that concept in our reading this morning. We do things, just as Jesus did, because it is right by God.

Amen.